Group items tagged

also compared SEA-indicated evaluation procedures across SEAs to evaluation procedures noted in IDEA-2004

The federal definition of autism preceded the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) [8], and it is essentially unchanged since 1990.

The federal definition is generally compatible with both the category of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) as described in DSM-IV and Autism Spectrum Disorder as described in DSM-5 [9], but it does not match any specific variety of PDD (see below). Within public school systems, students who have been clinically diagnosed with either a DSM-IV PDD or with DSM-5 Autism Spectrum Disorder are likely to be identified under the federal category of autism for the purpose of receiving special education services

In contrast to the IDEA-2004 definition, criteria for autism are more specific in the DSM-IV clinical diagnostic criteria

DSM-IV was superseded by DSM-5 [9]. The disorders comprising PDD in DSM-IV are largely addressed in DSM-5 by the Autism Spectrum Disorders category, which—unlike DSM-IV’s PDD—has no subcategories.

identification criteria still include substantial social problems (social initiations and responses, nonverbal social communication, and social relationships) and restricted, repetitive behaviors or interests (deviant speech or movements, rituals and resistance to change, preoccupations, and sensory reactivity). State education agencies (SEAs) have not yet incorporated DSM-5 information into their policies, procedures, and practices related to students with autism, and the DSM-5 definition was not involved in the present study.

State education agency (SEA) definitions of a disability do not have to match the federal definition but must substantially address its elements or lose federal financial support for special education.

No doubt the prevalence of ASD naturally varies somewhat with geography [4] but probably not by such a large factor, greater than tenfold in adjacent states. Conceivably, some state-by-state variation might be attributable to the content of SEA definitions of autism and perhaps the evaluation procedures required to accurately measure the concepts presented in definitions.

In a study of SEA definitions of autism, MacFarlane and Kanaya [10] found substantial variation in the eligibility criteria used by different states. By their analysis, 35% of SEAs based autism eligibility solely on the federal definition of autism, while 65% used diverse other criteria including symptoms of autism from the DSM-IV-TR